Once and for all — do undocumented immigrants take away jobs from unemployed Americans? Or are they willing to work where Americans are not?
Floridians who responded to the PIE Center’s survey seem to think the former (but more on that tomorrow). Researchers in North Carolina, however, have proven the opposite.
In fact, not only are foreign workers filling jobs that U.S. citizens avoid, they are playing “a vital role in commercial agriculture,” adding to the economy and creating even more jobs.
Even though researchers with the Partnership for a New American Economy and the Center for Global Development examined legal immigration through the H-2A, or temporary seasonal worker, visa program, agriculture is one of the industries that hire the most number of undocumented immigrants, behind only hospitality.
Many of North Carolina’s top farms join forces to apply for H-2A visas as one organization. The North Carolina Growers Association is the largest single user of H-2A visas in the country.
In 2011, about 500,000 state residents were unemployed and the North Carolina Growers Association boasted about 6,500 available jobs.
Only 268 of the unemployed North Carolinians applied for those jobs.
Although more than 90 percent of the applicants were hired, only 163 people showed up for the first day of work.
After only a month, more than half of those workers quit.
By the end of the growing season, only seven American workers remained.
Half of a million unemployed people lived in North Carolina. Seven U.S. citizens worked an entire growing season.
American citizens filled only one-tenth of one percent of the 6,500 available jobs.
By comparison, about 90 percent of Mexican workers with H-2A visas work the full growing season.
In 2012, about 7,000 seasonal workers added between $248 million and $371 million to the state economy — a boost that created one American-filled job for every three to five H-2A farm workers, according to researchers.
What’s more, the growers association must prove that Americans will not meet the industry’s needs so that they can award H-2A visas. The growers recruit and advertise available jobs through classified ads and the state’s unemployment agency.
The North Carolina Growers Association spent more than $100,000 to advertise available jobs and comply with immigration laws in 2011, but paid just $87,000 in wages to the seven U.S. citizens who completed the season.
“The example of the North Carolina Growers Association affirms how deeply American farms depend on foreign labor, and how fundamental foreign labor is to making the agriculture industry run,” according to the report, which cites the increased demand for fresh produce. “These trends mean that the role of foreign labor on American farms will only grow larger in the coming years, and we need to make sure our immigration policies are equipped to get us the workers we need.”
